


Underneath The Tree

by lunecarree



Series: xmas drabbles [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Christmas, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Mentioned Mark Lee/ Osaki Shotaro, proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:35:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27877705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunecarree/pseuds/lunecarree
Summary: The adventures of Yukhei, who left Christmas shopping till last minute, again.
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas
Series: xmas drabbles [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2041113
Comments: 13
Kudos: 60





	Underneath The Tree

**Author's Note:**

> hi luren nation, please accept my crumbs.
> 
> for erika because merry early Christmas and you deserve it. i love you a lot
> 
> unbetad

_you’re here where you should be,_

Patronisingly cheerful music played in the speakers overhead, as it always did this time of year. It was December 23rd and Wong Yukhei found himself, once again, in the department store doing last-minute Christmas shopping. 

Part of the reason he had always left Christmas shopping this late was because it was just so easy. His parents and his brother were so predictable to buy for and his friends always did a Secret Santa. This year he had gotten Xiaojun and god bless him and his extensive amazon wish list. 

However, Yukhei should know better because buying for his boyfriend, Renjun, always took a lot more consideration and time. Generally, gift-giving was something important between them. Renjun, the ever so creative man, always tries to make something for Yukhei, making the whole ordeal ten times more intimate and special. 

Now, as much as Yukhei loved and appreciated this tradition, it makes it so much harder for him to match the quality of the gift. The first year they had started dating, 6 years ago, Renjun had made a portrait of the two of them. The portrait was based on their first-ever picture together, the two of them at a party of some sort, laughing, looking into each other’s eyes. 

It was such a perfect gift, Yukhei had cried. Yukhei had gotten him a blanket with a character from that one anime he had been talking about. Renjun had insisted that he loved it, but Yukhei felt like their gifts couldn’t even be compared. 

So the next year he had made Renjun a scrapbook, filled with little souvenirs from every date that they had gone on since they had started seeing each other. Renjun who had been doing a pottery class at college had made him a plant pot for them to put their first plant child, Samuel, in. 

The years went on like that and Yukhei normally had a really good idea of what he was going to make Renjun for Christmas but this year he was totally stumped for ideas. No inspiration had hit him for three weeks. Which made this trip all the more stressful. The 500 people running about him in similar situations combined with the over the top Christmas decorations every two square metres made the whole thing harder. 

So, in a desperate last attempt at salvaging it. He called Mark. 

“Hey, you’re a romantic guy,” Yukhei said without a moment's hesitation when the ringing ceased. Mark choked a little on the other end of the line. Yukhei smiled and stepped to the side, realising he had been standing in the way of people by just stopping in the middle of the walkway. 

“I mean uh, Sure.” Was Mark’s response. “Why? Where are you? It's so loud.” Mark complained. It was very loud, Yukhei stood on the fifth floor of a bustling department store only two days before the biggest capitalistic holiday of the year. 

“I’m at Selfridges.” Yukhei explains, “I’m doing last-minute Christmas shopping and really struggling to think of what to get Renjun.” Yukhei picked up the bottle of perfume on the stand before him, sniffing at it and then gagging at how overly sweet it was. Looking around to make sure nobody caught him, he made eye contact with a member of staff and smiled nervously. 

“What? Don’t you normally have his gift ready like months in advance?” Yukhei rolls his eyes at Mark for over exaggerating. 

“Not months,” Yukhei enunciated, “but normally before December 23rd yes.” Yukhei would never consider himself an overly organised or prepared person but even he normally wouldn’t be so careless as he was this year. He had no idea what had possessed him. 

“I don’t know if I can help you, Taro and Renjun have different tastes.” Yukhei supposes that he may be right, Mark’s boyfriend, Shotaro, and Renjun despite being great friends have completely different interests. He feels his hope shattering. 

“You’re right.” Yukhei sighs, dragging a hand up to wipe his forehead. He absolutely loathed Christmas shopping, the store was too stressful and too hot and he felt like he might cry if one more thing didn’t go his way. 

“Don’t worry though! You totally got this!” Mark reassured, clearly sensing the other’s distress through the phone. Yukhei did not feel like he had got this. However he didn’t tell his friend, politely thanking him for his help and hanging up.

He continued walking through the store in order to try and see if anything would stick out and be the perfect gift to save this Christmas nightmare. 

That’s how Yukhei found himself in the jewellery section. 

Jewellery felt like maybe one of the most overdone Christmas gifts ever, Yukhei felt stumped, he didn’t want to come across as a shitty boyfriend who had put no effort into Renjun’s gift at all. Even though that was the reality, Yukhei mused to himself bitterly. 

Yukhei had given up all hope and was ready to leave, accepting the fact that he would never find the perfect gift or any gift at all for that matter. That was then his eyes found the rings. A ring. 

Yukhei and Renjun had been dating for six years now, Yukhei had thought about buying a ring several times over the past two years, but had never built up the courage to do so. Fiancee. It felt so right, it felt like the natural next step.

Yukhei had known pretty early on in their relationship, as cringy as it sounds, that Renjun was the one. The one that one day he wanted to call his husband. He was right, six years later and every day he finds a new reason to fall in love with Renjun all over again and he swears that every time that Renjun laughs his heart grows in size. 

Despite knowing all this, Yukhei had never bought the ring. He doesn’t know why. Maybe it was a fear, not of rejection but something different. Something deep inside him had stopped him from doing so. 

Now, though, standing in front of the glass case of rings, it had never felt more like the right time. A certain silver band was calling to his heart. 

Yukhei realises with embarrassment that he has been standing staring at the ring for almost five minutes without saying anything to the cashier. He looks up to apologise but finds the cashier herself is distracted, staring longingly towards the mini Santa’s village across the department store. He recognises that look and feels himself smile a little. 

He tries to clear his throat, not wanting to come across as a rude customer but still feeling a sense of urgency. This feeling of confidence was seldom found and he needed to buy the ring before it was too late. 

“Oh my gosh, I am so sorry Sir, I hope you weren’t waiting too long.” The tips of the girl’s ears were turning red. Yukhei politely reassured her that it was fine but still her ears flamed a bright red. 

“Do you want it gift-wrapped?” She asked and Yukhei panicked a little, was this the Christmas gift? Should he wrap it or should he hide it? 

“I don’t think so.” Well, it’s a ring, in a box, for him to propose with. Propose. Oh, Fuck. 

“I take it this is an engagement ring?” She asks, a sincere smile on her face. He nods abashedly. “That’s romantic, a Christmas proposal.” Yukhei realises that she must have seen him panic and is now trying to motivate him, he appreciates the sentiment but he doesn’t think it’s working. 

“You seem a bit nervous.” She chuckles. “I don’t know you all that well, or your partner as a matter of fact but I know that you did find your way here. Maybe you don’t but I believe in fate, fate has given you the confidence to buy this ring.” She says as she wraps it up for him. “What I mean is, this is right and you can do this, you don’t need to get cold feet, something led you here so let it lead you.” She grinned as she placed the bag on top of the case. 

Yukhei felt himself calm down a little at her words, maybe she was right. “Thank you.” He said sincerely, she winked at him as she put through his payment. 

“Trust me, my sixth sense tells me it’ll go great.” He smiled a little before walking off. A newfound sense of reassurance, Yukhei loves Renjun and he wants to marry him. This was right. 

_you’re all that i need underneath the tree_

When Christmas morning came around, Renjun woke him up like he did every year, always an early riser. “Xuxi.” He feels Renjun whispering in his ear, slowly blinking his eyes open he sees his boyfriend hovering over him, a fond smile on his face. “Morning baby.” 

Yukhei, on the other hand, was not a morning person. He takes Renjun’s hand from where it rested on his cheek and pressed a kiss to his palm. “Morning.” His voice was croaky, heavy with tiredness. 

“It’s Christmas.” Yukhei yawns as he points it out and Renjun smiles as he brushes Yukhei’s hair away from his eyes, it was getting way too long but Yukhei refused to cut it, Renjun kind of liked how it was growing out and who was he to deprive his boyfriend of this part of their morning routine. 

“It is.” Renjun nods. “Which means you need to get your ass out of bed so we can make hot chocolate.” Yukhei groans and Renjun chuckles at the sound. Leaning down to kiss him fleetingly, once, twice and Yukhei grabs his face on the third press of their lips, trying to drag him down into bed with him. 

This time it’s Renjun who groans. “Xuxi, come on we are not going to spend all of Christmas morning in bed.” Yukhei thinks to himself that the idea doesn’t sound too bad, but knows better than to say that out loud. 

To Yukhei’s greatest displeasure, his boyfriend gets off of him and out of their bed. 

“Okay, I’m coming,” Yukhei says but makes absolutely zero effort to move from his spot. 

Renjun ends up having to physically drag him through to their kitchen, where they like every year, make hot cocoa. 

They make hot chocolate peacefully, Christmas music playing in the back and they small talk about Renjun’s dream. Renjun was blessed with the gift of having bizarrely creative dreams and remembering every single detail of it when he woke up. 

This morning though, Renjun stops mid-story too busy laughing. At first, Yukhei assumes this is because whatever happened next was just really amusing but soon realised that his boyfriend was laughing at him. He’s confused. 

“What is it?” Yukhei asks puzzled. Renjun gestures for him to come closer and he moves his mouth closer to Yukhei’s cheek, and Yukhei for a moment feels his heart swell, thinking his ever so smooth boyfriend was just going to kiss his cheek. 

This was not the case, Renjun licked at Yukhei’s cheek and Yukhei, barely awake, was disgusted. “You had chocolate on your cheek.” Renjun laughs and Yukhei takes a deep breath. 

He closes his eyes. “I hate you.” The ridiculously fond tone he used was probably a dead give away, so Renjun just continues to chuckle at his boyfriend’s expense. 

This was him. The love of Yukhei’s life. The man he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. 

After the hot chocolate was made it was time, the gift exchange. When they sat themselves down in front of their mini tree, Yukhei suddenly felt a whole lot less confident than he did when he was talking to the cashier at the department store. 

This was it, he was really going to propose. No more my boyfriend Renjun but it would be, My _Fiance_. Then eventually, my _husband._

He was equal parts excited as he was nervous. 

“I want to go first this year.” Renjun claps his hands. Pulling out a small gift bag from behind the tree and placing it in Yukhei’s lap. 

Yukhei relaxes a little, if Renjun goes first then he has a little more time to practice the mental speech he has been playing over and over in his head like a broken record these past two days. 

Yukhei raises his eyebrows at his boyfriend as he filters through the substantial amounts of tissue paper that he had used in the gift bag. When he finally got through he felt his heart drop, at the bottom of the bag sat a little black velvet box. 

Yukhei couldn’t believe it. 

When he opened the box, there was exactly what he thought there would be. A silver band, almost identical to the one that Yukhei had bought. 

“Huang Xuxi.” Yukhei looked up to Renjun through watery eyes. “I love you, and I have ever since you accidentally walked into my history of art class six years ago. There’s no other person in the whole entire world I could imagine making hot chocolate with on Christmas mornings or raising an abundance of plant children with. It’s you, you’re everything to me and as much pride as I take in telling everyone that the great Huang Xuxi is my boyfriend I would also really love to call you my Husband.” Renjun smiles at him. “So, will you marry me?”

Yukhei tries to laugh but it sounds more like a choked sob. “Junnie, you won’t believe.” He grabs his own bag and pulls out the box opening it to show Renjun the almost identical ring. 

Renjun laughs a little. “You stole my present idea,” 

Then Yukhei was jumping forward and encasing Renjun’s face with his hands. “Yes, I’ll marry you, dork.” He presses a soft kiss to Renjun’s lips. 

Renjun reaches up and grabs at his hands. “Good.” Renjun smiles. “Because I wasn’t really going to take no for an answer,” Renjun leans forward and joins their lips again, smiling a little into the kiss. 

And Wong Yukhei couldn’t even imagine a universe where he would ever say no. 

**Author's Note:**

> [my twitter](https://twitter.com/kunwooism) if you want to talk hehe


End file.
